DJ Bl3nd vs. Diplo – Social Media and Fake Fans

Things got pretty heated in Hollywood today at a conference where Diplo called out DJ’s who buy fake fans on social media to falsely inflate the numbers. He specifically named DJ Bl3nd as a culprit and then things escalated between Diplo and Bl3nd’s management team.

“Today the W Hotel in Hollywood hosted the dance music community for IMS Engage, a spinoff symposium of Ibiza’s more recognizable International Music Summit (held every year at the kick off of the summer season on the island). While many of the unmoderated panels were informative and likely quite docile, things reportedly got pretty heated when Diplo began talking about people in the industry inflating or even buying fake social media fans.

While speaking to Instagram founder Kevin Systrom about where social media and music intersect in today’s world, he spoke out against the practice. “A lot of people inflate their numbers,” he explained. “You don’t really want fake Facebook fans; they don’t buy your records.” Things quickly escalated once Diplo specifically called out DJ Bl3nd an arguably lesser known artist with more than 3 million Facebook likes to Diplo’s almost 400k. A member of BL3ND’s team interjected to argue for the validity of the numbers, and it’s also reported that a physical fight broke out between Diplo and Bl3nd’s teams once the session was over.